'Jonny Zero' Was Doomed From The Start

March 25, 2005|By RENE LYNCH The Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD — The late show excelled when it focused on the intimate.

That graveyard Friday night time slot should have tipped anyone off that "Jonny Zero" was not long for this world, but I went ahead and fell for the recently canceled midseason Fox drama about a pumped-up, tatted-out, recovering addict struggling to walk the straight and narrow after doing four years in prison for a homicide.

Jonny, played by charismatic TV newcomer Franky G, soon finds himself pinched between his old criminal boss and the FBI, which forces him to become a snitch.

Critics had a field day making fun of the show's early episodes. ("Zero? Don't flatter yourself," was the way it tended to go.) But still I found myself tuning in or at least recording it every week. There was the poignant story line about Jonny's efforts to reconnect with those whose lives he shattered, including his ex-wife, his disgraced family and the young son he barely knew.

There was that vibrant backdrop of New York City's barrios and bodegas, and that soundtrack, an eclectic melange of hip-hop and Latin beats.

Yes, there were also clues that the demise of "Jonny Zero" was imminent: more than a few lapses in logic and chronological glitches, for example, surely a sign that scripts were worked into overtime. And there were probably too many cheesy moments, courtesy of what had to be the lowest-rent P.I. business in TV history, which Jonny and a sidekick called "Heroes for Hire" and promoted via photocopied fliers.

As the season got under way, the show's writers and producers seemed to be putting more and more emphasis on far-fetched plotlines involving the pull between mob life and being an FBI informant.

That was unfortunate, because the best parts of "Jonny Zero" by far were the show's intimate moments, such as when Jonny's ex-wife breaks the news that she wants to start a new life with her doctor boyfriend in a different city.

Anger sweeps across Jonny's face and pent-up tears spill from his eyes as he realizes that would mean losing his young son -- the linchpin to Jonny's sobriety and ability to stay on the right side of the law and the one person who brings a smile to his oft-scowling face.

It was "Jonny Zero" as Everyman, seeking redemption, trying to escape the mistakes of the past, that I found hard to resist.

You'd think I'd have known better.

I have a long history of falling for TV shows that go and get themselves canceled. "Dark Angel." "Sports Night." "Murder One." I get sucked in, invested in the characters, then crushed when the show goes dark, often without resolving the loose ends.

So it was a bittersweet consolation that I was able to see an advance tape of the show's jolting, cliffhanger season ending -- the one the rest of America never got to see. The FBI sends Jonny back to prison for one last undercover task -- and then walks away, leaving a stunned and betrayed Jonny in the one place he promised his son he'd never return to. Worse, word is already out that he's a government snitch.

It's a painful image now suspended in my head.

And so I've caught myself on more than one occasion sketching out possible plotlines for a show that's already lying cold in its grave. There has to be a way to get Jonny out of prison, right? There just has to be a way for Jonny to win back his ex and be the dad he desperately wants to be.